Waitrose has teamed up with Moy Park to launch the UK’s first-ever chicken range that is a source of omega 3.

The range, produced by Moy Park especially for Waitrose, contains 10 lines including whole chickens, breast fillets and thigh meat, and will go on sale from 15 June.

The project has been in the pipeline for a decade with supplier Moy Park and animal nutrition specialist Devenish Nutrition creating the range to meet medical community concerns that consumers were not including enough omega 3 in their diets.

Revolutionise nutrition

According to Professor Patrick Wall, Professor of Public Health, University College Dublin, the range is "going to revolutionise nutrition". "The idea that you can make an everyday product healthier suggests you could have a huge impact on health.”

Initial trials of the range demonstrated that people eating enriched chicken for just five weeks had increased levels of Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and see measurable effects on their cardiovascular health. Testing was carried out on 30 healthy participants whose omega 3 levels were measured after one, three and five weeks of eating three servings per week of omega 3 enriched chicken meat. On average participants saw their levels of omega 3s increase by 12%.

Heather Jenkins, Waitrose agricultural director, said: “Our research is showing that this nutritional breakthrough has the potential to have a significant impact on health. What’s exciting is that it’s improving the nutritional content of something which customers already consume frequently as part of their diets.”

Justin Coleman, Moy Park agriculture development manager, added: “Food and farming innovation are important focus areas for Moy Park and we are proud to be the first poultry company in the UK to produce chicken enriched with omega 3. Including omega 3 in the chickens' natural diet makes this already healthy food even healthier.”